Busted: Drug trade routed through Dark Web, Bitcoin

Atif Salim

Atif Salim

Anything common between the trio of Dark Net, Bitcoin, Wickr Me and milk powder containers? Nothing, you may say.

Well, a combination of these was used to run a sophisticated drug racket spanning two continents. The Bengaluru police on Friday announced that they had busted the racket by arresting a man from Kolkata.

Atif Salim (25) was peddling hydro ganja, a highly processed variety of marijuana that he procured from a Canadian drug cartel. Their marketplace was Dark Net, a network of secret websites. The communication happened through Wickr Me, an end-to-end encrypted messaging platform. Bitcoin was the currency that changed hands.

But what stumped the police was the innocuous supply chain.

Concealed beneath layers of chocolates and jelly candies, the drug was packed in baby milk containers.

The package was then put in Amazon wrapping and delivered through the DTDC courier company.

Each baby milk container stored 14 packets of marijuana, weighing 2.7 kg. In the Indian market, the drug was sold for Rs 3,000 to 4,000 per gram.

Salim kept one-fourth of the supply for himself and delivered the rest to customers identified by the drug cartel.

He made hash oil from his share of the drug and sold it to customers in Bengaluru and other cities in the country.

Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao said they had seized marijuana worth Rs 1 crore from Salim.

According to Rao, the peddlers flavoured marijuana in chocolate and mint to attract beginners and get them hooked.

The CCB seized 12 such chocolates, besides 100 tubes mixed with hash oil that’s used in e-cigarettes and three small marijuana crushers used to make powder.

A Škoda automobile, a two-wheeler, a weighing machine and Rs 1 lakh in cash were also confiscated, added Rao.